Virginia: Home Sweet Home

This past weekend I decided to take a little road trip and go and visit my best friend, Ashley, down in Kingsport, Tennessee. We are both native Virginians, and met many years ago as freshman in college. We have maintained a strong friendship despite having never lived within 6 hours each other since that freshman year.

On my way to Tennessee, I found myself in western Virginia. I haven’t been in this part of Virginia since I was about 19. But no matter what part of Virginia I might be in, I always feel like I gain a little piece of myself back as soon as I cross that state line. For those of you who still live in Virginia, you may never know what I’m talking about. For those of you who have moved away from what I refer to as the greatest state in the nation (ok—so I might be a bit biased), you know EXACTLY what I am referring to. Sometimes I feel as those who grew up around me understand and appreciate my personality more than the people in other places I have lived. They understand where I’m coming from…literally!

There are so many things I miss about Virginia (and the east coast in general). Some things I miss the most besides the people are: Brunswick stew, Utz Chesapeake Bay crab chips, FRESH seafood, seagulls (yes, I hated them when I lived there, but they are sure prettier than the pigeons in Ohio), historical sites on every corner…places that are so significant to our country’s history but at the same time so unappreciated by the locals who live right next door to them, Sheetz and Wawa, big beautiful brick houses, the OCEAN and water everywhere, being so close to major east coast cities but still thinking they are SOOO far away, grits being served at every breakfast establishment, trees, people fighting over UVA football vs. VT football (but let’s not kid ourselves…UVA’s program has been lousy for sometime), and hundreds of other things. Virginia is a culture in an identity crisis. It has the yuppie of the north mixed with a bit of the laid-back attitude of the south. And I miss that.

With that being said, I decided to take a few pictures at the state line since it was late and there was no traffic. Obviously I was in the western, more remote, part of the state because these pictures could never have been taken at the Virginia/Maryland border or off of I-95 back where I’m from at the Carolina border. I may have been in Virginia for only an hour, but it was nice to feel at home, even if just for a short amount of time.